WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:07.000 ...witchers among you, I exhort, whom also an elder, and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. 00:07.000 --> 00:14.000 Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. 00:14.000 --> 00:18.000 Now there is being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. 00:18.000 --> 00:23.000 When the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. 00:23.000 --> 00:29.000 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility. 00:29.000 --> 00:33.000 For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 00:33.000 --> 00:40.000 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. 00:40.000 --> 00:47.000 Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. 00:47.000 --> 00:53.000 Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 00:53.000 --> 01:02.000 With the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. 01:02.000 --> 01:05.000 To him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. 01:05.000 --> 01:13.000 By Sylvain as a faithful brother unto you as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. 01:13.000 --> 01:17.000 The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteeth you, and so doth Marcus my son. 01:17.000 --> 01:22.000 Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus, amen. 01:22.000 --> 01:26.000 Let's pray to the Lord God, thank you for this opportunity to be in your house. 01:26.000 --> 01:28.000 We ask that you would please meet with us here now this morning. 01:28.000 --> 01:32.000 Please fill Brother Ulysses with your spirit as he preaches and in Jesus name we pray, amen. 01:32.000 --> 01:34.000 Amen. 01:34.000 --> 01:37.000 I forgot to mention Pastor Mejia will be back on Thursday. 01:37.000 --> 01:41.000 He's actually in Texas right now preaching for Pastor Rikki Reyes. 01:41.000 --> 01:43.000 So that's the reason why he's not here. 01:43.000 --> 01:47.000 Just be in prayer for him for safe travels and then he'll be back on this Thursday. 01:47.000 --> 01:52.000 So you're there in 1 Peter chapter 5. Look down at your Bibles at verse number 8. 01:52.000 --> 01:59.000 The Bible says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 01:59.000 --> 02:03.000 And the title of the sermon this morning is, Don't let your guard down. 02:03.000 --> 02:05.000 Don't let your guard down. 02:05.000 --> 02:07.000 You know, what does it mean to let your guard down? 02:07.000 --> 02:12.000 Pretty much it just means that you're not being vigilant, you're not being cautious, you're not really aware of your surroundings. 02:12.000 --> 02:16.000 You're not prepared for what's to come or any unexpected dangers. 02:16.000 --> 02:19.000 And the Bible tells us to be vigilant, to be sober. 02:19.000 --> 02:23.000 And so this morning I want to preach on that subject of not letting your guard down. 02:23.000 --> 02:29.000 And the Bible says right here that the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. 02:29.000 --> 02:32.000 And the Bible refers to him as the lion. 02:32.000 --> 02:38.000 And you think about in nature, you know, when a lion is stalking their prey, trying to take them out, you know, they're very patient. 02:38.000 --> 02:41.000 And they're just trying to see for the right moment when to attack. 02:41.000 --> 02:46.000 And I believe that Satan, in a lot of ways, is like that, because he is patient at times. 02:46.000 --> 02:58.000 And he just sees in a moment when we're vulnerable, when our guard is not up, when we're tired, you know, when we're going through stress and hard times and trials, that's typically the time where Satan attacks. 02:58.000 --> 03:02.000 And this morning I just want to encourage you to not let your guard down. 03:02.000 --> 03:05.000 And you see in verse number eight where it says, Be sober. 03:05.000 --> 03:12.000 The Bible is telling us to be sober minded, to be vigilant, again, to be cautious, to be aware of the dangers that are out there. 03:12.000 --> 03:15.000 And there are many dangers out there for the Christians. 03:15.000 --> 03:20.000 And I want to say this morning, you know, the devil wants nothing more than to see you, you know, out of church. 03:20.000 --> 03:22.000 The devil wants you to stop praying. 03:22.000 --> 03:25.000 The devil wants you to stop reading your Bible. 03:25.000 --> 03:34.000 The devil just wants to destroy you and make you ineffective so that you don't win people to Christ, so that you don't encourage others here at this church, so that you don't do anything great for God. 03:34.000 --> 03:37.000 And this morning, like I said, that's the title of the sermon this morning. 03:37.000 --> 03:39.000 Don't let your guard down. 03:39.000 --> 03:42.000 And, you know, our church, I was thinking about it, is coming up on 10 years. 03:42.000 --> 03:44.000 Obviously we're celebrating nine years this September. 03:44.000 --> 03:48.000 But next year we're celebrating a milestone, which is a decade, 10 years. 03:48.000 --> 03:50.000 And, you know, I thank God for that. 03:50.000 --> 03:54.000 I believe that he's blessing our church, a lot of new people, a lot of new families, more children. 03:54.000 --> 03:57.000 And God's hand is upon our pastor and our churches. 03:57.000 --> 04:00.000 And I just want to encourage you, you know, stick it out for the long haul. 04:00.000 --> 04:05.000 You know, we're going to hit 10 years and, Lord willing, we're going to hit another 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. 04:05.000 --> 04:09.000 And, you know, it's encouraging to see the same people that were there at the first service. 04:09.000 --> 04:12.000 You know, I think about Miss Kelly, the Carries, Brother Paul. 04:12.000 --> 04:17.000 There's a lot of people that are still here that were here over a decade, right, or almost a decade. 04:17.000 --> 04:18.000 And it's encouraging to see. 04:18.000 --> 04:24.000 And I want to look back when we hit another decade, 20 years, and a lot of the same people are here and even more new people as well. 04:25.000 --> 04:33.000 And so this morning, like I said, that's the reason why I want to preach this sermon, because I'm encouraged just to know that, you know, God's hand is upon our pastor, upon our church. 04:33.000 --> 04:34.000 And I want to continue to serve God. 04:34.000 --> 04:36.000 And I want you guys to be here as well. 04:36.000 --> 04:39.000 But we're not going to be able to do that if we let our guard down. 04:39.000 --> 04:46.000 And typically that phrase, you know, we hear it when it comes to, like, boxing or it comes to fighting, you know, people saying, don't let your guard down. 04:46.000 --> 04:48.000 Because what happens when they let their guard down? 04:48.000 --> 04:49.000 That's when they get attacked. 04:49.000 --> 04:50.000 That's when they get knocked out. 04:50.000 --> 04:52.000 That's when, you know, they get, you know, beat down. 04:52.000 --> 04:57.000 And this is something as a Christian, if we're not careful, it's going to happen in the same manner. 04:57.000 --> 04:58.000 So go to this morning. 04:58.000 --> 05:01.000 Go to Romans, chapter seven, Romans, chapter seven. 05:02.000 --> 05:06.000 So, like I said, the devil wants us to stop coming to church. 05:06.000 --> 05:09.000 The devil wants you to stop going to whatever church it is that you go. 05:09.000 --> 05:10.000 Maybe you're not a member of our church. 05:10.000 --> 05:11.000 Maybe you're just visiting. 05:11.000 --> 05:16.000 But the devil ultimately just wants to render you useless, wants you to be ineffective. 05:16.000 --> 05:20.000 And he wasn't successful when it comes to you not getting saved. 05:20.000 --> 05:27.000 The Bible says that, you know, he wants us to not know the truth when it comes to salvation. 05:27.000 --> 05:29.000 But, you know, that's already settled. 05:29.000 --> 05:34.000 If you're saved this morning, now what the devil wants for you is to destroy you and render you ineffective. 05:34.000 --> 05:36.000 You're there in Romans, chapter seven. 05:36.000 --> 05:38.000 Look down at your Bibles at verse number 14. 05:38.000 --> 05:42.000 The Bible says, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, 05:42.000 --> 05:45.000 so that I understand for that which I do I allow not. 05:45.000 --> 05:50.000 For what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I. 05:50.000 --> 05:51.000 And I'll come back to this right now. 05:51.000 --> 05:56.000 But pretty much why I read that first is simply because we have a lot of enemies in our Christian life. 05:56.000 --> 05:58.000 You know, on one end we do have Satan. 05:58.000 --> 05:59.000 We have the devil. 05:59.000 --> 06:01.000 We have his minions. 06:01.000 --> 06:04.000 We have the world, you know, that's constantly fighting against us. 06:04.000 --> 06:06.000 We have our flesh. 06:06.000 --> 06:12.000 And if you're here this morning, you know, obviously you, you know, you won the battle as far as like getting out of bed, 06:12.000 --> 06:14.000 getting ready, getting dressed and coming to church. 06:14.000 --> 06:16.000 But, you know, we have the flesh every morning. 06:16.000 --> 06:18.000 Every day is a new day. 06:18.000 --> 06:20.000 And we're constantly having to fight. 06:20.000 --> 06:23.000 And, you know, the Bible says that we need to fight the good fight of faith. 06:23.000 --> 06:28.000 The Bible says that, you know, we need to be ready for whatever Satan throws at us. 06:28.000 --> 06:31.000 And, you know, make no mistake about it, when we get saved, 06:31.000 --> 06:34.000 that doesn't mean that we're automatically going to do what's right. 06:34.000 --> 06:39.000 You know, Pastor often reminds us that even though we're saved, we still have the old man within us. 06:39.000 --> 06:40.000 We still have the flesh. 06:40.000 --> 06:42.000 We still have sinful desires. 06:42.000 --> 06:46.000 And it is up to us to walk in the spirit to not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 06:46.000 --> 06:51.000 And so Paul here recognizes, you know what, you know, that Satan, although he is an enemy, 06:51.000 --> 06:57.000 although the world is an enemy as well, ultimately the person that could destroy you the most is you yourself. 06:57.000 --> 06:58.000 Right? 06:58.000 --> 07:02.000 I could destroy myself by getting out of church, but not being where I'm supposed to be, 07:02.000 --> 07:04.000 but not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. 07:04.000 --> 07:09.000 And this morning I want to tell you, I want to remind you that don't put your guard down. 07:09.000 --> 07:11.000 Now, skip down to verse number 20. 07:11.000 --> 07:12.000 Skip down to verse number 20. 07:12.000 --> 07:15.000 The Bible says, Now if I do that, I would not. 07:15.000 --> 07:19.000 It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 07:19.000 --> 07:23.000 I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me, 07:23.000 --> 07:26.000 for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. 07:26.000 --> 07:30.000 And so Paul recognizes the struggle, and that's the struggle that every Christian has. 07:30.000 --> 07:36.000 You know, we struggle every day whether we're going to obey the flesh or whether we're going to obey the spirit. 07:36.000 --> 07:39.000 And it's up to us, you know, how much are we in our Bible? 07:39.000 --> 07:40.000 How much are we? 07:40.000 --> 07:42.000 How many times a week are we going to church? 07:42.000 --> 07:47.000 You know, how strong are we spiritually that's going to determine whether or not we're successful in the Christian life? 07:47.000 --> 07:50.000 And I think everybody recognizes, right, that it is a daily battle. 07:50.000 --> 07:57.000 You know, everybody that's gone through a diet of some sort or has tried to lose some weight, it is a struggle, right? 07:57.000 --> 08:03.000 And it's up to you to avoid, you know, the avoid the junk food, avoid all the fattening foods. 08:03.000 --> 08:04.000 It's a struggle, right? 08:04.000 --> 08:07.000 And I don't think there's anybody here that would say dieting is easy. 08:07.000 --> 08:10.000 Maybe if you're like on peptides or something, but no, I'm just kidding. 08:10.000 --> 08:12.000 But, you know, dieting is never easy. 08:12.000 --> 08:15.000 And, you know, that's the thing that people struggle with. 08:15.000 --> 08:19.000 But how much more spiritually, you know, there's no peptide that's going to help you spiritually, 08:19.000 --> 08:24.000 that's going to, you know, somehow help you avoid committing those sins. 08:24.000 --> 08:29.000 Now go to Galatians chapter 5, go to Galatians chapter 5. 08:29.000 --> 08:32.000 And where we started off, it was 1 Peter. 08:32.000 --> 08:34.000 And I just want to go back to that before I move on. 08:34.000 --> 08:36.000 The Bible says right there in verse number 8, 08:36.000 --> 08:39.000 Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion. 08:39.000 --> 08:42.000 Walk at the bow, seeking whom he may devour. 08:42.000 --> 08:46.000 And primarily, you know, this is starting off by speaking to the elders that are among us. 08:46.000 --> 08:55.000 And that's the main reason why I believe that Satan is out there to destroy the flock of God, to destroy the pastor, you know, to destroy the shepherd. 08:55.000 --> 09:00.000 Obviously, we understand that, you know, the shepherd is Jesus Christ, the head shepherd. 09:00.000 --> 09:07.000 But then humanly speaking, pastors in charge of the church, pastors in charge of, you know, running the church here at First Works Baptist Church. 09:07.000 --> 09:10.000 And what does Satan want? To destroy the pastor. 09:10.000 --> 09:13.000 And that's why it's important that we pray for one another, right? 09:13.000 --> 09:20.000 That's why it's important that we pray for pastor, for his family, for God to put a hedge of protection over them. 09:20.000 --> 09:28.000 You know, we don't want anything to happen to them, or, you know, he would have to step down, or, you know, he something tragic happens like an accident or anything. 09:28.000 --> 09:33.000 We need to pray for pastor constantly. And I don't know if you do that throughout the week, but you should. 09:33.000 --> 09:38.000 And we need to pray for one another because at the end of the day, you know, all we got is each other. 09:38.000 --> 09:45.000 You know, that might sound corny, but the Bible says, you know, that, you know, we are here, you know, to encourage each other, to provoke each other into good works. 09:45.000 --> 09:53.000 And I want to remind you just throughout the week, take some time to pray for our pastor, you know, to pray that God would give him wisdom to lead the church in the right direction. 09:53.000 --> 09:58.000 Because there's many churches today that are no longer, you know, a church that are no longer open. 09:58.000 --> 10:01.000 And how does that happen? Because they let their guard down. 10:01.000 --> 10:07.000 And this morning, I just want to remind you, like I said, you know, pastor needs to keep his guard up. We need to keep our guard up. 10:07.000 --> 10:10.000 Why? For the sake of our children, for the sake of the next generation. 10:10.000 --> 10:17.000 You know, we pray that we're still here 10 years from now, 20 years from now, but that's only going to happen if we keep our guard up. 10:18.000 --> 10:23.000 So, like I said, go to Galatians chapter, what did I have you turn Galatians chapter five. 10:23.000 --> 10:32.000 The Bible says this, I say, then walk in the spirit and he shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. 10:32.000 --> 10:37.000 And these are contrary to the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. 10:37.000 --> 10:43.000 And so, again, we see the struggle that's within the Christian, the flesh wanting to do one thing, the spirit wanting to do another thing. 10:43.000 --> 10:50.000 And these are contrary one to the other. And at the end of the day, you know, we need to feed the spirit more than what we feed the flesh. 10:50.000 --> 11:00.000 And how do we do that? By coming to church, by reading our Bible, by praying, by fellowshiping with the right people, not hanging out with the wrong people or people have been kicked out of church or anything like that. 11:00.000 --> 11:06.000 You know, we need to be smart. We need to be vigilant. And, you know, too many Christians today, I feel like they just act dumb, right? 11:06.000 --> 11:11.000 They just act like people that there's no wicked people out there. There's wicked people out there. Right. 11:12.000 --> 11:16.000 And we need to be smart. We need to be prudent and be able to foresee the evil before we fall in it. 11:16.000 --> 11:33.000 Now, go to go to First Peter, chapter five again. We're gonna go back and it says beginning of verse number one, the Bible says the elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. 11:33.000 --> 11:46.000 The Bible says feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. 11:46.000 --> 11:53.000 And so here we see that this is directed towards to the pastors and the Bible commands them to feed the flock. 11:53.000 --> 11:58.000 But too often today, because pastors don't have their guard up, what happens? They're not feeding the flock, right? 11:58.000 --> 12:03.000 They're not being vigilant. They're allowing things to enter the church that should not be in the church. 12:03.000 --> 12:18.000 And I want to remind you again, we need to pray for our pastor. Why? So that he could continue, you know, being over this church, protecting the church, feeding the flock, being able to teach us what's right, what's wrong, so that we can do something great for God. 12:18.000 --> 12:33.000 Let me just look here. Where did I have you turn? I go to 1 Peter chapter 5 again. Actually, you know, go to Timothy chapter 3, 1 Timothy chapter 3. 12:33.000 --> 12:40.000 So at the end of the day, like I said, we have those enemies. We have Satan, we have the world, we have the flesh. How is the world our enemy? 12:40.000 --> 12:47.000 You know, they want us to be like them. You know, they want us to follow a multitude to do evil. They want us to think like them. 12:47.000 --> 12:53.000 And if we're not in church, what's going to happen to our mind? You know, we're going to stop thinking biblically and we're going to think more like the world. 12:53.000 --> 13:00.000 We're going to start thinking that it's OK, you know, to do certain things when it's not. We think it's OK to be like a social drinker when it's not. 13:00.000 --> 13:06.000 We're going to think that it's OK that, you know, to divorce our spouse, to, you know, get remarried after your divorce. 13:06.000 --> 13:11.000 These are things that the world promotes and the Bible teaches against that. 13:11.000 --> 13:16.000 So what I see, I keep reading. We're having first Timothy chapter 3. 13:16.000 --> 13:23.000 The Bible says in verse number one, this is a true saying. If a man desire the office of the bishop, he desires the good work. 13:23.000 --> 13:28.000 And I just want to kind of like bring this up because I remember when the not when the new I.B. 13:28.000 --> 13:34.000 started, but pretty much when it started growing, I would say, and a lot of more people were going to the conferences. 13:34.000 --> 13:39.000 A lot more churches were starting. There was a time where a lot of people did want to become pastors, right? 13:39.000 --> 13:43.000 I would hear a lot of people just say, like, I want to be a pastor. How many times I have to read my Bible? 13:43.000 --> 13:47.000 There's a time I felt where there's a lot more men that want to be pastors. 13:47.000 --> 13:56.000 And over time, for whatever reason, maybe because of the persecution the pastors received, the lawsuits, the people that backstab them, whatever the case might be. 13:56.000 --> 14:02.000 I feel like that number has gone down now. And then the reason for that, too, I feel because the pastorate, it is a difficult job. 14:03.000 --> 14:07.000 You know, it's not just you preaching three sermons a week. Pastor does a lot of work throughout the week. 14:07.000 --> 14:13.000 He puts out a lot of content. And then although some people may look at it and see like, well, it's just a short video, it's a one minute video. 14:13.000 --> 14:18.000 But you know how much you have to study to put all that influence to that one short video? You know, that takes work. 14:18.000 --> 14:22.000 The graphics, the editing, that's all pastor. Right. 14:22.000 --> 14:29.000 And it's what has that caused a lot of people to hear about our church, a lot of people to hear about the truth, a lot of people that we've been getting visiting our churches 14:29.000 --> 14:35.000 because of the content that he puts out there. And that would have never happened if he didn't put in the work. 14:35.000 --> 14:39.000 Years pass and continues to learn and grow in his knowledge and his wisdom. 14:39.000 --> 14:45.000 This is why it's important, you know, anybody wants to be a pastor to realize that it is hard work. 14:45.000 --> 14:48.000 The Bible calls it good work, but it is work. 14:48.000 --> 14:53.000 You know, it's not something that's easy where you're just going to, you know, be in church and just preach three sermons and that's it. 14:53.000 --> 14:56.000 No, it's a 24 hour job. And, you know, sometimes I'm here at the building. 14:56.000 --> 14:59.000 I walked by his door. I'm all at the door. 14:59.000 --> 15:04.000 I'm just walking by doing some stuff and I hear him, you know, counseling. 15:04.000 --> 15:08.000 I hear him preaching the gospel. I hear him practicing his podcast. 15:08.000 --> 15:16.000 There's so many things to do. And the reason why I believe that he has been successful, why our church has been successful is because of all the hard work that he does. 15:16.000 --> 15:19.000 And that's why I said we need to continue to pray for him. 15:19.000 --> 15:26.000 We need to continue to pray for him to keep his guard up because it's not by accident that he's still here after like what 20 years. 15:26.000 --> 15:29.000 It's not by accident that you're still here after 10 years. 15:29.000 --> 15:37.000 Right. These are things that happen because we are we had our guard up and the moment that we start getting comfortable and start feeling like we will arrive. 15:37.000 --> 15:40.000 You know, we let our guard down. That's when Satan attacks. 15:40.000 --> 15:48.000 That's when it's more likely for you to, you know, get bitter towards somebody or have resentment towards somebody in the church or just, you know, 15:48.000 --> 15:51.000 have problems within each other, within amongst ourselves. 15:51.000 --> 15:54.000 And what does that cause you to get out of church? Right. 15:54.000 --> 16:02.000 And that's all because you don't have your guard up. Now, I told you go to first Peter, first Timothy, chapter three. 16:02.000 --> 16:07.000 We read that being a pastor is a hard job. It's a good work. 16:07.000 --> 16:14.000 But the Bible says that he that desire it, right, desire the good work. Now, go to give me a second here. 16:14.000 --> 16:17.000 Go to first Timothy, chapter five, first Timothy, chapter five. 16:17.000 --> 16:22.000 So we see that the passage started with Peter telling them the elders are among you. 16:22.000 --> 16:29.000 Feed the flock. And that's one of the most, if not the most important job of the pastor is to feed the flock. 16:29.000 --> 16:36.000 And how is he going to do that? By studying, right, by showing himself approved, by reading the Bible constantly, by reading it cover to cover. 16:36.000 --> 16:43.000 And these are things that don't happen overnight. These are things that have happened over the years, over the course of his Christian life. 16:43.000 --> 16:46.000 You know, this is something that the pastor has to do. Feed the flock. 16:46.000 --> 16:50.000 But too many pastors today, instead of feeding the flock, they're feeding themselves. Right. 16:50.000 --> 16:55.000 They're too busy doing other things. They're too busy just wasting time, not getting anything done. 16:55.000 --> 17:01.000 And I come from an old Ivy Church, you know, and that pastor, you know, for whatever reason, we just didn't grow. 17:01.000 --> 17:04.000 And was it because we didn't put in the work? We put in some work, right. 17:04.000 --> 17:09.000 But we're only going to go as far as what the pastor, you know, the vision that he casts. 17:09.000 --> 17:12.000 And here at First Worshipping Baptist Church, pastor has a big vision. 17:12.000 --> 17:14.000 You know, we have it open the wall. It's a pretty big frame. 17:14.000 --> 17:18.000 And if you ever look at it, it says advance, you know, furthering the gospel, building people. 17:18.000 --> 17:20.000 Right. I think that's what it says. I can't see. 17:20.000 --> 17:26.000 But, you know, the pastor has a vision to hit four thousand salvations by the end of the year. 17:26.000 --> 17:30.000 And we're almost there. You know, we're not. Last year we got fifteen hundred salvations. 17:30.000 --> 17:33.000 This year we're already about to hit fifteen hundred salvations at the end of this month. 17:33.000 --> 17:37.000 And how does that happen? Because pastor casts the vision, right. 17:37.000 --> 17:38.000 We're putting in the work. 17:38.000 --> 17:44.000 So, again, I want to say that the pastor, what's his job? To feed the flock. 17:44.000 --> 17:49.000 And this is all introduction. I just want to remind you that the title of the sermon is to don't let your guard down. 17:49.000 --> 17:51.000 Keep your guard up. 17:51.000 --> 17:56.000 And the first point I want to make, I just want to talk about this regarding three different areas of life. 17:56.000 --> 18:00.000 Number one, we kind of already started talking about it, which is the pastorate. 18:00.000 --> 18:05.000 And the pastor, you know, he has to have his guard up. He has to be vigilant. 18:05.000 --> 18:09.000 He has to be cautious because there are a lot of attacks that Satan will throw out at our church. 18:09.000 --> 18:13.000 There's a lot of attacks from without. But sometimes there's attacks from within as well. 18:13.000 --> 18:17.000 And if the pastor is not vigilant, what's going to happen to the church? It's going to get destroyed. 18:17.000 --> 18:24.000 And a lot of times we don't think like, well, you know, that church has been around for 30 years, but it's been dead, right, for 20 years. 18:24.000 --> 18:29.000 They stop, keep doing the first works. They lost their first love. You know, it's a dead church. 18:29.000 --> 18:34.000 And we never want to become a dead church. We want to be a church that's constantly improving, constantly going further. 18:34.000 --> 18:41.000 Then what we did the previous year. So again, I said at the beginning, you know, this is 2017. 18:41.000 --> 18:45.000 I'm just kind of thinking about how time flies. 2017, our church starts. 18:45.000 --> 18:51.000 2017, there's a lot of people in other new churches, you know, they want to pastor, they want to do something great for God. 18:51.000 --> 18:59.000 But as the years go by, some of these people just, you know, just disappear or they get into sin or, you know, they get involved in what they shouldn't have gotten involved. 18:59.000 --> 19:02.000 And they're no longer in the fight. Now, how does that happen? 19:02.000 --> 19:10.000 Because they let their guard down. Now, the first point I want to make is that the shepherd or the pastor needs to have his guard up. 19:10.000 --> 19:14.000 Why? Again, because we want to exist as a church 10, 20 years from now. 19:14.000 --> 19:20.000 Now, the first thing that I want to mention is that there is consequences when the pastor lets his guard down. 19:20.000 --> 19:25.000 And the first point I want to make is that when a pastor lets his guard down, what's going to happen? 19:25.000 --> 19:30.000 You know, he's going to allow he begins to allow bad doctrine to enter the church. 19:30.000 --> 19:36.000 This is one of the things that could happen when a pastor lets his guard down is to allow bad doctrine to enter the church. 19:36.000 --> 19:39.000 Go to First Timothy, Chapter four, First Timothy, Chapter four. 19:39.000 --> 19:50.000 You see, if a pastor is not studying the Bible, if a pastor is just like spending his time reading commentaries or just watching YouTube videos or just like learning from false teachers, what's going to happen? 19:50.000 --> 19:53.000 He's going to allow himself to be influenced by that. 19:53.000 --> 20:00.000 And that's the problem with a lot of churches, not just independent Baptist churches, but any other church that has the right gospel. 20:00.000 --> 20:04.000 A lot of times they preach false doctrine. Why? Because they're influenced by false teachers. 20:04.000 --> 20:08.000 You know, there's good people out there that are right on salvation, but they're wrong on the Jews. 20:08.000 --> 20:13.000 You know, there's good people out there that are right on salvation, but they're wrong on the timing of the rapture. 20:13.000 --> 20:18.000 They're wrong on the homos. They're wrong on different subjects. They're wrong on divorce. You know, they have these stance. Why? 20:18.000 --> 20:26.000 Because they're allowing themselves to be influenced by commentaries, by false teachers, by people that are not saved, that don't know the Bible. 20:26.000 --> 20:29.000 But for some reason, you know, that's the people that they look up to. 20:29.000 --> 20:37.000 Let me take a sit. Give me a second. Go to First Timothy, Chapter four. 20:37.000 --> 20:44.000 In verse 13, the Bible says, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, and they glant not the gift that is in thee, 20:44.000 --> 20:49.000 which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on the hands of the presbytery. 20:49.000 --> 20:54.000 Meditate upon these things, give thyself holy to them, that thy profity may appear to all. 20:54.000 --> 21:02.000 And then it says, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. 21:02.000 --> 21:08.000 See, why is it important that the pastor studies the Bible, that the pastor is right on doctrine? 21:08.000 --> 21:13.000 Because if he is not, it's more likely that the congregants of the church are going to be wrong as well. 21:13.000 --> 21:21.000 See, if pastor starts preaching the preacher of rapture, which he doesn't, you know, but if he were to start preaching that, a lot of people would be swayed. 21:21.000 --> 21:25.000 You know, this is our pastor. You know, he's preaching it this way. 21:25.000 --> 21:27.000 Okay, maybe that's why that's what the Bible teaches. 21:27.000 --> 21:29.000 And unfortunately, that's what happens in a lot of churches. 21:29.000 --> 21:33.000 A lot of the doctrine, obviously, that they get is from what they read in their personal Bible reading. 21:33.000 --> 21:37.000 But we are influenced by what pastor preaches, by what he teaches. 21:37.000 --> 21:43.000 And if it obviously, if we search the scriptures and that's what it seems like it teaches, we're going to follow that as well. 21:43.000 --> 21:50.000 But if the pastor is teaching false doctrine, just bad doctrine, you know, the congregants are more likely to believe it as well. 21:50.000 --> 21:57.000 And here, he's telling Timothy to take heed unto thyself because he's going to save himself and them that hear thee. 21:57.000 --> 22:03.000 And it's not talking about salvation. It's just talking about, you know, he's going to save them from the dangers of falling into false doctrine. 22:03.000 --> 22:07.000 Go to First Timothy, Chapter four, where you're there already. Look at verse number one. 22:07.000 --> 22:12.000 The Bible does say, Now the spirit speak it expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, 22:12.000 --> 22:20.000 giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. 22:20.000 --> 22:22.000 And so there are many false teachers out there today. 22:22.000 --> 22:27.000 And the Bible warns us that even how there were false prophets back then, there's going to be false teachers among us. 22:27.000 --> 22:31.000 And not only are there going to be false teachers, but there's also going to be, you know, false brethren, 22:31.000 --> 22:37.000 people who claim to be saved, who might say the right thing, but inwardly, you know, they're just wolves in sheep's clothing. 22:37.000 --> 22:46.000 Now, I want to make a point that, like I said, if he lets his guard down, not just our pastor, but any pastor, any pastor that's out there, 22:46.000 --> 22:50.000 the Bible says that, well, he begins to what's going to happen. 22:50.000 --> 22:56.000 He's going to begin to allow bad doctrine to enter the church, bad doctrine to enter the church. 22:56.000 --> 23:00.000 Now, what is bad doctrine? You know, it's just something that is contrary to the Bible. 23:00.000 --> 23:07.000 Bad doctrine could be regarding the home. It could be, you know, regarding marriage. It could be regarding authority. 23:07.000 --> 23:12.000 It could be regarding feminism. You know, if the pastor is not having his guard up, what's going to happen? 23:12.000 --> 23:16.000 He's going to allow those teachings to come into his church. And then at the end of the day, what's going to happen? 23:16.000 --> 23:21.000 The church is destroyed. Why? Because they're believing, you know, that divorce is okay. 23:21.000 --> 23:25.000 They're believing that drinking alcohol is okay, being a casual drinker. 23:25.000 --> 23:32.000 They're believing that, you know, the wife and the husband are equal in the sense of authority when the Bible teaches that the husband is the head of the household. 23:32.000 --> 23:38.000 Right. So if they're believing all these wrong things over time, what's going to happen? We're going to see disorder. 23:38.000 --> 23:42.000 We're going to see women ruling their husbands when it should be the other way around. 23:42.000 --> 23:46.000 We're going to see loudmouth women, not only in person, but also online. 23:46.000 --> 23:52.000 And why is that? Because, you know, the pastor is not being vigilant, is not being cautious, has his guard down, 23:52.000 --> 23:59.000 and then he's allowing those doctors to come into a church. And we may not see the repercussions of it immediately, but eventually we do. 23:59.000 --> 24:06.000 Right. And over the years, because it wasn't dealt with, what's going to happen? The church is destroyed for lack of wisdom, for lack of being vigilant. 24:06.000 --> 24:11.000 Now go to 2 Peter, Chapter 2, 2 Peter, Chapter 2. What does it mean to be vigilant? 24:11.000 --> 24:21.000 It just means to be careful, to be watchful for possible danger or difficulties. 24:21.000 --> 24:28.000 Another thing that could happen if the pastor lets his guard down, we said number one is to allow bad doctrine to the church. 24:28.000 --> 24:36.000 Obviously we don't want that in our church, but if that happens, you know, another thing that could happen is that the pastor will allow bad people to remain in the congregation. 24:36.000 --> 24:41.000 He will let bad people remain in the congregation. Look at 2 Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 1, the Bible says, 24:41.000 --> 25:02.000 Now what does privilege mean? Just secretly, privately? And there are a lot of churches today, specifically mega churches, where it's hard to kind of have a control over that, right? 25:02.000 --> 25:09.000 If they don't have proper leadership in place, it's more likely to happen, where they have, you know, people teaching Calvinism, people teaching, you know, 25:09.000 --> 25:15.000 against the sinner's prayer, against calling upon the name of the Lord, people teaching, you know, baptism for salvation. 25:15.000 --> 25:26.000 These are things that happen in a lot bigger churches, and it's all because the pastor is not vigilant, is not having his guard up, and what he allows those people to remain in his church. 25:26.000 --> 25:32.000 And this happens even in smaller churches. You know, the church that I was talking about that I went to before, it was a Spanish old IFB church, 25:32.000 --> 25:37.000 but you know, the pastor would just allow unsafe people to remain in the church. And now is that a big deal? 25:37.000 --> 25:44.000 It's not really a big deal if we're trying to reach them, but you know, not a lot was being done to make sure that they got saved. 25:44.000 --> 25:50.000 You know, sometimes a phrase would be thrown out there, where it would be like, well, this person is just a little off on salvation. 25:50.000 --> 25:53.000 If a person is a little off, you know, they're way off. They're not saved, right? 25:53.000 --> 26:00.000 So these are things that we heard, you know, growing up, or just being an old IFB, that a person is just a little off, you know, just a little off. 26:00.000 --> 26:03.000 But a little off is going to, you know, where is it going to take them? It's going to take them to hell. 26:04.000 --> 26:12.000 All right. So then also, like I said, a pastor needs to be vigilant, needs to have his guard up, because then these people are going to remain in the church. 26:12.000 --> 26:20.000 And I'll give you an example. Like I was thinking of, you know, when we were in Bible college, we had different kinds of classes. 26:20.000 --> 26:25.000 And it's actually Miserio's brother, you know, brother Joseph, that was the teacher of the class. But this is a guy that is vigilant, right? 26:25.000 --> 26:34.000 This is a guy that has his guard up. And we were just reading. A lot of times they would pick on us to read the passage of the scripture, right? 26:34.000 --> 26:38.000 So that we were going to deal with in class and, you know, kind of off-subject. 26:38.000 --> 26:43.000 But one time they chose me for the names and I was like already dreading it. And I forgot what chapter it was. 26:43.000 --> 26:47.000 I was just like, oh, man. So then I started reading. I was like butchering them, getting them all wrong. 26:47.000 --> 26:52.000 And then I remember brother Joseph like, why don't you just get down to like the pretty much at the end of the list. 26:52.000 --> 26:58.000 But anyways, but the point I was trying to make is that that this person was in our class. He was a student. 26:58.000 --> 27:03.000 He was part of another church because Bible colleges, that's how it is. Just different people from different churches. 27:03.000 --> 27:09.000 And he calls on him to read the passage, right? And so he starts reading. I think Brother Marcus was there. 27:09.000 --> 27:15.000 Actually, it was Brother Marcus. No, I'm just kidding. But Brother Marcus was there and that this person started reading. 27:15.000 --> 27:19.000 And then so it just sounded different, right? And then Brother Joseph kind of caught on to it. 27:19.000 --> 27:24.000 He's like, you can stop there. And then can you read this? But he didn't want to embarrass him. 27:24.000 --> 27:28.000 But he was reading from the wrong version of the Bible. He was reading from New King James Bible. 27:28.000 --> 27:32.000 And if you're in Bible college, you know, we only use the King James Bible, right? 27:32.000 --> 27:36.000 That's the Bible that we use in this church as well. That's the only Bible that you should use. 27:36.000 --> 27:43.000 But the point I'm trying to make is that this student, you know, he was reading out of the New King James because his church, his home church promoted that. 27:43.000 --> 27:47.000 You know, that pastor was not vigilant, let his guard down, allowed the New King James Bible in his church, 27:47.000 --> 27:51.000 allowed the reign of the letter in 1960. Right. But this student was in the college. 27:51.000 --> 27:56.000 He was reading out of the wrong Bible. And Brother Joseph was smart enough, vigilant, had his guard up. 27:56.000 --> 28:00.000 He's like, you know what? You can stop right there because he knew that that was in the Bible. Right. 28:00.000 --> 28:05.000 He knew that that was in the Word of God. And you say, what's wrong with the New King James? Well, a lot of things are right. 28:05.000 --> 28:10.000 Just because it says King James, it's not the same thing. You know, things are different or not the same. 28:10.000 --> 28:14.000 And just to give you an example, you know, you could think of First Corinthians. 28:14.000 --> 28:20.000 I think it's like one verse 18 where it talks about and to us, which are saved, right, because we're saved. 28:20.000 --> 28:23.000 Once we're once you call upon the name of the Lord, once you believe in Jesus Christ, it's a done deal. 28:23.000 --> 28:28.000 But what does the New King James say? It says that put to us, which are being saved. Right. 28:28.000 --> 28:32.000 And is that what the Bible teaches that salvation is a process? It's not. Right. 28:32.000 --> 28:36.000 The Bible says that we're saved. And if salvation was a process, 28:36.000 --> 28:43.000 then we wouldn't be able to quote what First John 513 says that these things are written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, 28:43.000 --> 28:48.000 that you may know that you're saved. If you're being saved, you're never going to know. Right. 28:48.000 --> 28:56.000 That's just a side note. But I'm thinking about the situation where it's like this is an example of a man, you know, that was vigilant, had his guard up, knew what's up. 28:56.000 --> 29:01.000 Right. Knew that that was in the Bible. And so he stopped them right there. 29:01.000 --> 29:09.000 And unfortunately, there's not a lot of people out there in other churches where they have their guard up to be able to spot, you know, false doctrine, false Bibles. 29:09.000 --> 29:14.000 And they're like, oh, that sounds pretty good. Right. Because they had like some kind of old English in it or something. 29:14.000 --> 29:22.000 So go to the First Corinthians, Chapter one, actually go to First Corinthians, Chapter five, First Corinthians, Chapter five. 29:22.000 --> 29:27.000 The point I was trying to make is that if a pastor does not have his guard up, what's going to happen? 29:27.000 --> 29:31.000 He's going to allow bad people to remain in the church. 29:31.000 --> 29:36.000 And when we think about like bad people, that's just the word that I'm using. But, you know, we would just call wicked people straight up. 29:36.000 --> 29:42.000 You know, there's a lot of wicked people in churches sometimes. And it's not I wouldn't say it's in this church because we're very cautious about that. 29:42.000 --> 29:46.000 But there's other churches out there that they let too many things slide. Right. 29:46.000 --> 29:51.000 And they might be saved. They're saved. Right. They're saved Christians. But Christians could be wicked also. 29:51.000 --> 29:56.000 You know, Christians could be gossipers. Christians could be railers. You know, Christians could be drunkards. 29:56.000 --> 30:01.000 They could be, you know, they could cause strife. They could cause problems in the church. 30:01.000 --> 30:06.000 And if a pastor is not vigilant, what's going to happen? They're going to allow those people to remain in the church. 30:06.000 --> 30:11.000 And that's not something that we should do. Why? Because then it's going to destroy the rest of the church. 30:11.000 --> 30:18.000 A little leaven, the whole lump, the Bible says. And, you know, you think about it like, should these people be removed? 30:18.000 --> 30:22.000 Yeah, they're guilty of any of those sins we find in First Corinthians, Chapter five or any other thing. 30:22.000 --> 30:28.000 You know, they should be kicked out of church. Now go to First Corinthians, Chapter five, look down at verse number six. 30:29.000 --> 30:35.000 Sometimes churches are like this. The Bible says your glory is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 30:35.000 --> 30:40.000 And so there's churches that, you know, take pride in the sense that they're more loving, more graceful, right? 30:40.000 --> 30:45.000 Because they allow these people to remain. But that's not a loving thing to do. That's not loving to the rest of the church. 30:45.000 --> 30:53.000 You know, that's not loving to the children in the church. You know, what if we just allowed a faggot just to walk in our church and we like, just sit right here. 30:53.000 --> 30:59.000 You know, that would be offensive, right? That would be a disloving thing, an unloving thing to the children of the church. 30:59.000 --> 31:04.000 And that would never happen here. You know, I could never picture that happening here. But it's just an example, right? 31:04.000 --> 31:08.000 Now go to Second Timothy, Chapter four. Second Timothy, Chapter four. 31:08.000 --> 31:12.000 And so these pastors, unfortunately, because they don't have their guard up, what are they doing? 31:12.000 --> 31:21.000 They're just allowing these people to remain in the church. You know, if somebody's a drunkard, if they're just getting drunk, you know, after work every day or on the weekends, you know, they should be kicked out of church. 31:21.000 --> 31:27.000 Is it because we hate them? No, we just want them to repent of that sin, get right with God, and then they're allowed back into the fold. Right? 31:27.000 --> 31:36.000 If a person is a railer, it's just lying about the pastor. It's just lying about other brethren in the church. That person needs to be removed as well. So they get it right. 31:36.000 --> 31:42.000 If a person is like extorting people, right? If a person is being covetous and just getting others to be covetous as well. 31:42.000 --> 31:47.000 You know, Bible says that these people need to be removed as well, that we shouldn't have any company with them. 31:47.000 --> 31:52.000 And unfortunately, because pastors don't have their guard up, what's going to happen? They're going to allow these people to remain in the church. 31:52.000 --> 31:57.000 And that's going to destroy the church eventually. Now look at 2 Timothy, Chapter four. 31:57.000 --> 32:07.000 Second Timothy, Chapter four. So what's the pastor's job? I said it was to teach the Bible and to teach the whole Bible, right? 32:07.000 --> 32:14.000 Not just the positive, to hit on the negative things. And if you've been in our church for any length of time, you know that pastor hits on every single subject. 32:15.000 --> 32:22.000 The Bible says that we need to preach to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and with doctrine. 32:22.000 --> 32:27.000 That we need to preach, you know, actually go to 2 Timothy, Chapter four. I'll just read it for you. 32:27.000 --> 32:37.000 Look down at verse number two. The Bible says, Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 32:37.000 --> 32:49.000 For the time will come when they will not endorse sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 32:49.000 --> 32:55.000 But watch thou in all things, in door afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. 32:55.000 --> 33:03.000 And so here we see that this is a commandment to preach the word in season and out of season, when it's popular and when it's not popular. 33:03.000 --> 33:09.000 And at some point, you know, I think, you know, what drew us to this kind of church? You know, some people, it was the Jews. 33:09.000 --> 33:14.000 Some people, it was because, you know, we were tired just hearing about the pre-trib rapture. 33:14.000 --> 33:18.000 Some people, you know, we were just tired of pastors being too soft. 33:18.000 --> 33:25.000 And, you know, when you hear a pastor from the pulpit just say, you know, the word faggot, you know, that kind of is attractive, right? 33:25.000 --> 33:31.000 We're like, oh, sad. Like, there's more people out there that have the same disgust for this kind of people that I have, right? 33:31.000 --> 33:37.000 And you're never going to hear that in the old IFB. You're never going to hear a person say damn or piss or anything like that. 33:37.000 --> 33:46.000 You know, when I started hearing, listening to Pastor Steven Anderson, Pastor Anderson, and then other pastors that were at the movement at the time, right? 33:46.000 --> 33:49.000 You know, these are the things that attracted me to the movement. 33:49.000 --> 33:53.000 And the way that our church stays great is how they became great. 33:53.000 --> 34:05.000 When the church starts to change on what they used to preach and they go soft and they start, you know, like just, oh, now they're LGBT or now they're just homosexuals, you know, no, I want to hear faggot from the pulpit, right? 34:05.000 --> 34:09.000 I want to hear you call them a fag. I want to hear all that stuff. 34:09.000 --> 34:15.000 And it's a time and a place, obviously, you know, it's not all the time, you know, but pastor still preaches on it, right? 34:15.000 --> 34:19.000 There was a time where I think in churches it was just popular to preach against them. 34:19.000 --> 34:26.000 And then for whatever reason, the culture shifted, but we know the Bible doesn't shift and the preacher saw preach on it. 34:26.000 --> 34:33.000 And then so now we have a new wave of preachers that are not scared to preach the truth, that are not afraid to offend people, to step on toes. 34:33.000 --> 34:37.000 And that's attractive. You know, that attracts people to the truth. 34:37.000 --> 34:40.000 And so if a pastor lets his guard down, what's going to happen? 34:40.000 --> 34:48.000 He's going to go soft. And one thing that I don't want for our church, and I don't think it ever happened, but I'm just saying hypothetically, right, is for us to go soft. 34:48.000 --> 34:55.000 Nobody wants to be called soft as a man. Nobody wants to be like, oh, this person is a pretty soft guy. 34:55.000 --> 35:01.000 He's a sensitive guy, right? He's in touch or what do they say with his emotions. 35:01.000 --> 35:05.000 And as a guy, I don't think that's something that you should be characterized by. 35:05.000 --> 35:13.000 You shouldn't be characterized by just wearing your emotions on your sleeve and just showing all the time that, you know, people can tell, oh, this person is mad today. 35:13.000 --> 35:17.000 All this person is down today. All this person, you know, was crying last night. 35:17.000 --> 35:22.000 But you don't want to be characterized by that, right? I'm not saying people don't go through stuff. We do, right? 35:22.000 --> 35:25.000 You can't tell what I'm going through right now. But I'm just kidding. 35:25.000 --> 35:32.000 But, you know, you shouldn't be characterized as somebody that's soft. And if a pastor lets his guard down, eventually he will become soft. 35:32.000 --> 35:38.000 He's going to, you know, stop preaching on certain subjects to please, to placate people. 35:38.000 --> 35:43.000 He's going to preach different things just to please different people in his church. 35:43.000 --> 35:48.000 And so this is the third point that I want to bring up. The first was that if a pastor lets his guard down, what's going to happen? 35:48.000 --> 35:56.000 He's going to allow bad doctrine to the church. Number two is that he's going to allow bad people into the church and he's going to allow bad people to remain in the church as well. 35:56.000 --> 36:00.000 And then number three, if a pastor lets his guard down, what's going to happen? 36:00.000 --> 36:05.000 You know, he's going to trim down the message. He's going to withhold truth. He's not going to preach the whole counsel of God. 36:05.000 --> 36:09.000 And I'm thankful for our church where pastor preaches the whole Bible, right? 36:09.000 --> 36:19.000 There's nothing that he keeps back from us. And there's times and we're, you know, there's different seasons where maybe there's a lot of new people and there's something that you can't receive because you just never heard it before. 36:19.000 --> 36:26.000 You don't understand it. But, you know, but pastor preaches the milk of the word. He preaches the meat of the word. He preaches deep doctrine. 36:26.000 --> 36:32.000 He preaches on end times. He preaches on the family. It's a well-balanced diet that he gives us here. And so I'm thankful for that. 36:32.000 --> 36:38.000 But if a pastor has his guard down, what's going to happen? They're going to trim down the message. They're going to start withholding truth. 36:38.000 --> 36:44.000 They're only going to preach what's positive. They're only going to preach on subjects that, you know, people are not even interested in, right? 36:44.000 --> 36:49.000 They're only going to preach on things that I don't know. I can't even come up because pastors don't even do that. 36:49.000 --> 36:55.000 But, you know, they're going to preach on things that are not relevant to what the Bible says. 36:55.000 --> 36:59.000 Now go to Acts chapter 20. Go to Acts chapter 20. 37:10.000 --> 37:18.000 So why do pastors trim down the message? Well, number one, it's because out of fear. They're scared of their congregants. They're scared of their members. 37:18.000 --> 37:25.000 Number two is because they're greedy, a filthy lucre. They want the givers, the person that gives the most to not be offended. 37:25.000 --> 37:34.000 And these are, I think, the most, the primary reasons why a pastor would even withhold from preaching or stay away from certain topics because they don't want to offend people. 37:34.000 --> 37:39.000 And we don't want to become that kind of church where we're just too scared to preach on certain subjects. 37:39.000 --> 37:46.000 You know, I'm thankful that pastor steps on our toes, that every now and then, you know, we get offended because we should get offended, you know, 37:46.000 --> 37:51.000 because we never get offended. You know, that means we don't think there's anything to fix. Right. 37:51.000 --> 37:58.000 And there's always things that we can improve as a Christian. There's always things that we can do better, do it in a different way. 37:58.000 --> 38:03.000 And we're all going through we're all in a different season of life. You know, some people just got married. 38:03.000 --> 38:13.000 You know, congratulations to Brother DJ and Ms. Desiree. Some people are now old enough to have a job, to work out out in the field. 38:13.000 --> 38:20.000 Some people are just having kids. Whatever season it is, there's always something that we can improve or do better in our Christian life. 38:20.000 --> 38:23.000 You know, there's always something that we can take from the message. 38:23.000 --> 38:29.000 Maybe it might not apply at the time, but we need to, you know, keep it in our minds so that when the time comes, we're able to apply it. 38:29.000 --> 38:33.000 We're not just unaware of what to do in that situation. 38:33.000 --> 38:40.000 Now, I told you go to Acts chapter 20, look down at verse number 20, and this is Paul's mentality, how he said, 38:40.000 --> 38:47.000 And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but I have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house. 38:47.000 --> 38:52.000 And I like that Paul said that, you know, he said that he kept back nothing. 38:52.000 --> 38:57.000 And this is the attitude that a pastor should have, where he's not keeping back anything. 38:57.000 --> 39:05.000 You know, we don't want a pastor, we don't like people or preachers that withhold truth, that we know what the Bible says. 39:05.000 --> 39:12.000 And then for some reason they avoid going to that passage or for some reason they just avoid talking about it altogether. 39:12.000 --> 39:18.000 Right. We want people, we want pastors to have this mentality where they kept back nothing that was profitable unto us. 39:18.000 --> 39:21.000 And what is the you know, and the whole Bible is profitable to the Christian. 39:21.000 --> 39:27.000 If we don't have the whole Bible, if all we're reading is the Old Testament, if all we're reading is the New Testament, we're not going to be complete. 39:27.000 --> 39:30.000 We're going to be unbalanced in our Christian life. 39:30.000 --> 39:34.000 Go to go to Proverbs, Chapter 16, Proverbs, Chapter 16. 39:34.000 --> 39:38.000 I'm going to read to you from Jeremiah and let me read this passage. 39:38.000 --> 39:39.000 It says, 39:58.000 --> 40:02.000 And here we see the Lord telling Jeremiah, you know, diminish not a word. 40:02.000 --> 40:09.000 And the importance of that is because the Bible says in verse number three, if they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way. 40:09.000 --> 40:12.000 And so how do people get right by the preaching of God's word? 40:12.000 --> 40:17.000 You know, if pastors not preach on every single subject, you're never going to get right in that area. 40:17.000 --> 40:19.000 You know, if somebody comes to our church, maybe they're new. 40:19.000 --> 40:22.000 And this is just a common example because this is common in today's world. 40:22.000 --> 40:26.000 Right. If someone's just an alcoholic, they're just drinking. 40:26.000 --> 40:28.000 They're like, well, I only drink a couple of beers a day. 40:28.000 --> 40:30.000 Right. I'm not getting drunk. 40:30.000 --> 40:33.000 But if pastor never hit on that, how are they going to know to get right? 40:33.000 --> 40:38.000 If someone comes here and they're like just dating, but then, you know, they hear like, oh, you shouldn't be fornicating. 40:38.000 --> 40:41.000 You shouldn't be living with your girlfriend. 40:41.000 --> 40:44.000 And they never heard that before. They're like, oh, I didn't even know that was wrong. 40:44.000 --> 40:46.000 You know, what's going to happen? They're going to depart from that. 40:46.000 --> 40:47.000 They're going to get that right. 40:47.000 --> 40:55.000 But if they never hear messages on fornication, on drunkenness, on adultery, on divorce, you know, these people are going to remain in their sin. 40:55.000 --> 40:58.000 And it's not. And it's going to be the pastor's fault. Why? 40:58.000 --> 41:00.000 Because he's trimming the message. He's withholding truth. 41:00.000 --> 41:03.000 He's not preaching what's profitable to the people. 41:03.000 --> 41:06.000 And you're there in Proverbs 16. Look down at verse number six. 41:06.000 --> 41:08.000 The Bible says, by mercy and truth and iniquity is purged. 41:08.000 --> 41:12.000 And by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. 41:12.000 --> 41:16.000 And so pastor's job or the pastor's job is to teach people to fear God. 41:16.000 --> 41:18.000 And if people fear God, what's going to happen? 41:18.000 --> 41:20.000 They're going to depart from evil. 41:20.000 --> 41:26.000 You know, if people are afraid of God and are scared, you know, to commit sin, to fall in grievous sin, 41:26.000 --> 41:30.000 they're aware that God's judgment could come upon them and destroy them. 41:30.000 --> 41:36.000 And if people don't have notion of that, they don't think that they don't have that in the forefront of their mind, they're not going to be afraid of that. 41:36.000 --> 41:38.000 And what's going to happen? They're still going to suffer the consequences. 41:38.000 --> 41:42.000 But it's better for them to fear God and get it right and to be destroyed later on. 41:42.000 --> 41:46.000 You know, you think about, you know, how much preaching do we need nowadays against adultery? 41:46.000 --> 41:49.000 How much preaching do we need against divorce? 41:49.000 --> 41:54.000 How much preaching do we need against, like, drunkenness and smoking pot and doing drugs and all kinds of things? 41:54.000 --> 41:57.000 You know, if people don't hear about that, they're going to suffer the consequences. 41:57.000 --> 42:00.000 And I believe that we don't need less preaching on divorce. 42:00.000 --> 42:03.000 We don't need less preaching on being a drunk. 42:03.000 --> 42:05.000 We need more preaching on that. 42:05.000 --> 42:09.000 Right. Because too many people today, they just, I'm telling you, they're just going soft. 42:09.000 --> 42:12.000 Right. They're just saying that, you know, it's okay to get divorced. 42:12.000 --> 42:14.000 It's okay to remarry. 42:14.000 --> 42:17.000 It's okay, you know, to have a child wedlock. 42:17.000 --> 42:21.000 And they may not say it like that, but because they don't preach the whole truth, that's what they're implying. 42:22.000 --> 42:26.000 And if you don't know that, you might be somebody who's like, oh, my relative had a child wedlock. 42:26.000 --> 42:28.000 And you're just like, hey, congratulations. 42:28.000 --> 42:30.000 You know, that's not something that you should congratulate. 42:30.000 --> 42:34.000 You know, that's not a good thing, having a child be born out of marriage. 42:34.000 --> 42:37.000 Right. That's something that the Bible preaches against. 42:37.000 --> 42:40.000 And so we need more preaching on divorce. 42:40.000 --> 42:44.000 We need more preaching on, you know, being a drunk, on adultery. 42:44.000 --> 42:48.000 Because these are sins that, whether you like it or not, it's going to harm your reputation. 42:49.000 --> 42:58.000 You know, it's pretty hard to build up a good reputation, a good name, to have credibility in this world, to have, you know, just credibility overall with people. 42:58.000 --> 43:02.000 And you could commit a grievous sin where it just destroys your whole reputation. 43:02.000 --> 43:09.000 And something like divorce, something like stealing money, right, things like that, those are things that will destroy a person's reputation. 43:09.000 --> 43:12.000 Why? Because then they become untrustworthy. 43:12.000 --> 43:17.000 You know, they become, you know, somebody that we can't take advice from no more because they don't know how to rule their own house. 43:17.000 --> 43:19.000 They don't know how to rule themselves. 43:19.000 --> 43:22.000 They don't know how to be successful in their marriage. 43:22.000 --> 43:25.000 And, you know, I'm not going to take advice from a divorced person. 43:25.000 --> 43:28.000 I'm going to take advice from somebody has been married for many years. 43:28.000 --> 43:30.000 Right. And we're not down on people. 43:30.000 --> 43:33.000 If you've committed that mistake, whatever, you know, it's in the past. 43:33.000 --> 43:35.000 God forgave you. Just don't do it again. 43:35.000 --> 43:37.000 You know, you repented of it. You got right. 43:37.000 --> 43:41.000 You know, that's not something that we're going to, you know, constantly bring up. 43:41.000 --> 43:44.000 But we don't want the next generation to think that that's OK. 43:44.000 --> 43:46.000 And that's why we continue to preach against it. 43:46.000 --> 43:49.000 Now, go to Joshua, chapter 11, Joshua, chapter 11. 43:50.000 --> 43:54.000 And I like this too, where it says in Joshua, chapter 11, look down at verse 15. 43:54.000 --> 43:58.000 As the Lord commanded Moses, his servant, so did Moses command Joshua. 43:58.000 --> 44:03.000 And so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. 44:03.000 --> 44:11.000 And, you know, that should be the attitude of the pastor, of just preachers to leave nothing undone of what God commanded. Right. 44:11.000 --> 44:17.000 There's not things that we would say like, well, you know, I know the Bible says that, but I don't really want to preach that. 44:17.000 --> 44:23.000 No. As pastors, as preachers, as people that preach the word of God, you shouldn't withhold truth. 44:24.000 --> 44:30.000 So the first point I wanted to make is that the pastor, they should have their guard up. 44:30.000 --> 44:33.000 They shouldn't let their guard down. If they let their guard down, what's going to happen? 44:33.000 --> 44:35.000 Bad doctrine is going to come into the church. 44:35.000 --> 44:38.000 Bad people are going to come into the church and remain in the church. 44:38.000 --> 44:41.000 And then ultimately they're going to start withholding truth, trimming down the message. 44:41.000 --> 44:45.000 And that's not something that God looks down on and is pleased with. 44:46.000 --> 44:49.000 Go to Hebrews, chapter 10, Hebrews, chapter 10. 44:52.000 --> 44:55.000 And before I move on, let me just read this passage too, or let me just bring this up. 44:55.000 --> 45:03.000 You know, the reason why the pastor should preach the whole Bible is because the Bible is filled with stories, with people that have made mistakes, 45:03.000 --> 45:07.000 with events that have happened that can help us in our life. Right. 45:07.000 --> 45:14.000 If we look to, you know, what David did and how he committed adultery and how it just destroyed his family and how he lost a child 45:14.000 --> 45:17.000 and how he ended up being a murderer because he wanted to cover his sin. 45:17.000 --> 45:19.000 You know, these are things that happen in real life. 45:19.000 --> 45:21.000 You know, they're not just stories in the Bible. 45:21.000 --> 45:25.000 The Bible says that these are samples for us, right, so that we can take heed. 45:25.000 --> 45:28.000 You think about Samson and Delilah for the young people. 45:28.000 --> 45:33.000 You know, a lot of people resonate with that. Why? Because he gave his heart to strange women. 45:33.000 --> 45:36.000 He gave his heart to his strength unto women. 45:36.000 --> 45:38.000 And what happened? He ended up getting destroyed because of it. 45:38.000 --> 45:44.000 And so these are all stories that, yeah, we read about it, but they have a lesson that we can learn from it. 45:44.000 --> 45:47.000 Now go to Hebrews chapter 10. Look down at verse number 24. 45:47.000 --> 45:52.000 The Bible says, And let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works. 45:52.000 --> 45:57.000 Verse 25, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as a matter of some is, 45:57.000 --> 46:01.000 but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. 46:01.000 --> 46:05.000 And so the second point or second area that I want to encourage you to not let your guard down, 46:05.000 --> 46:10.000 number one was the pastor, just the leadership is the members of the church. 46:10.000 --> 46:13.000 And as members of First Words Baptist Church, we need to have our guard up. 46:13.000 --> 46:16.000 We need to have a guard up because what does Satan want from us? 46:16.000 --> 46:18.000 He wants you to stop coming to church, right? 46:18.000 --> 46:20.000 He wants you to stop coming to this church. 46:20.000 --> 46:24.000 And even if you fall out of, you know, for whatever reason, and let's say you just move, right? 46:24.000 --> 46:27.000 But you already heard enough preaching to know what's right. 46:27.000 --> 46:31.000 You know, I don't think there's anybody in here that once you come to our church 46:31.000 --> 46:35.000 or once you come to any church that's like-minded like us that you can go back to a different kind of church 46:35.000 --> 46:37.000 because it's not the same. It's not the same. 46:37.000 --> 46:40.000 Like I can't picture ever going back to the old IFB, right? 46:40.000 --> 46:46.000 I can't picture that or even going to like a non-denom church or anything like that because those things are not the same. 46:46.000 --> 46:49.000 I actually never been to non-denom, but from what Cody tells me, no, I'm just kidding. 46:49.000 --> 46:54.000 But, you know, I never want to go there. 46:54.000 --> 46:59.000 So right here we see that not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as a matter of some is. 46:59.000 --> 47:02.000 And why? Because it's important to come to church. 47:02.000 --> 47:04.000 It's not just something that you should do. 47:04.000 --> 47:07.000 It's something that, you know, is commanded by God to do, right? 47:07.000 --> 47:11.000 And it's not spelled out right there. You know, thou shall come three to thrive kind of thing. 47:11.000 --> 47:14.000 But it says right there and so much the more as you see the day approaching, 47:14.000 --> 47:18.000 why would you want to come to less church when you benefit from one service? 47:18.000 --> 47:21.000 How much more would you benefit from two services from three services? Right? 47:21.000 --> 47:25.000 You think about people that are trying to get fit or trying to like work out, you know, 47:25.000 --> 47:28.000 working out once in a while is not going to do anything. Right? 47:28.000 --> 47:32.000 Working out once in a blue moon, you know, every eclipse or something. 47:32.000 --> 47:34.000 It's not going to make a difference. Right? 47:34.000 --> 47:37.000 When people want to see results, they're going to put in the work. 47:37.000 --> 47:39.000 They're going to work out a couple of times a week. 47:39.000 --> 47:41.000 And then they're going to see the results. 47:41.000 --> 47:44.000 And it's the same thing with church. You know, you're not, you know, 47:44.000 --> 47:46.000 we're not forcing you to work out or whatever. You should. 47:46.000 --> 47:50.000 But, you know, when it comes to church, you should come to church. 47:50.000 --> 47:52.000 That's something that God commands you to do. 47:52.000 --> 47:54.000 And I think it's coming to church is pretty simple. Right? 47:54.000 --> 47:56.000 All you have to do is just drive here. 47:56.000 --> 48:01.000 And I understand gas is like six, seven dollars now, but you're still going to drive. 48:01.000 --> 48:04.000 You know, it's not like you're not going to drive your car at all or anything like that. 48:04.000 --> 48:06.000 You're still paying for the gas. 48:06.000 --> 48:09.000 So if you're paying for the gas, might as well use it to come to church. 48:09.000 --> 48:11.000 And like I said, it's a commandment from God. 48:11.000 --> 48:13.000 It's not an optional thing. 48:13.000 --> 48:15.000 And let's just say you can't come all the time. 48:15.000 --> 48:19.000 Like as in the three services, you could come to one service. Right? 48:19.000 --> 48:21.000 Prioritize one service. 48:21.000 --> 48:23.000 Maybe you have a busy work schedule. 48:23.000 --> 48:26.000 Maybe you have to provide your finances, you know, whatever the case may be. 48:26.000 --> 48:28.000 You have to work for whatever the case may be. 48:28.000 --> 48:32.000 But you could prioritize one service a week. 48:32.000 --> 48:34.000 I don't think that's that hard. 48:34.000 --> 48:38.000 Now go to Hebrews chapter four. 48:38.000 --> 48:40.000 Go to Hebrews chapter four. 48:47.000 --> 48:50.000 And so this is something that happens when people let their guard down. 48:50.000 --> 48:53.000 You know, as a Christian, if you've been in church for any length of time, 48:53.000 --> 48:55.000 this is something that you purposely have to do. 48:55.000 --> 48:57.000 So this is something you have to purpose in your heart, 48:57.000 --> 48:59.000 this matter of like just coming to church. 48:59.000 --> 49:01.000 It's a discipline you have to develop. 49:01.000 --> 49:03.000 It's a habit that you have to develop. 49:03.000 --> 49:06.000 It's not just something like, you know, once you come to church, you just hear all the time. 49:06.000 --> 49:08.000 You know, I personally wasn't like that. 49:08.000 --> 49:11.000 I came to church in December 2010. 49:11.000 --> 49:14.000 I got saved, but I didn't get plugged into like four months later. Right? 49:14.000 --> 49:18.000 And even then I started coming more frequently towards the end of 2011. 49:19.000 --> 49:21.000 And it's different for everybody. 49:21.000 --> 49:24.000 But it's just something that as a Christian, you have to go through that phase 49:24.000 --> 49:27.000 where you have to make church part of your life. Right? 49:27.000 --> 49:28.000 Because now you're saved. 49:28.000 --> 49:32.000 And you don't want to be just a saved individual just staying at home on a Sunday, 49:32.000 --> 49:38.000 watching what? Like football or watching Bad Bunny or I don't know, watching like whatever. 49:38.000 --> 49:39.000 Just wasting time. Right? 49:39.000 --> 49:44.000 If you're a saved Christian, you have Sundays off, just come to church. Right? 49:44.000 --> 49:46.000 Just come in the morning. Come at night. 49:46.000 --> 49:48.000 You're you wake you work graveyard. 49:48.000 --> 49:51.000 You're sleeping throughout in the morning. Just come at night. 49:51.000 --> 49:55.000 You know, that's what we have to services. Come to both. 49:55.000 --> 49:57.000 Now, you're there in for Hebrew chapter four. 49:57.000 --> 50:01.000 The Bible says for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword piercing, 50:01.000 --> 50:05.000 even to the diviness thunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. 50:05.000 --> 50:09.000 And it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 50:09.000 --> 50:14.000 And so before I move on, just to finish this point is that when you let your guard down as a Christian, 50:14.000 --> 50:18.000 the first thing that goes is church for some reason for whatever reason. 50:18.000 --> 50:21.000 You know, they just leave church and that happens. 50:21.000 --> 50:25.000 Sometimes it seems like it's overnight, but they left church a long time ago in their heart. Right? 50:25.000 --> 50:28.000 They just came just because they still had some friends here. 50:28.000 --> 50:33.000 But eventually, you know, they don't feel you know, they don't feel like coming anymore. 50:33.000 --> 50:35.000 And then they just end up leaving. 50:35.000 --> 50:40.000 And sadly, you know, there's a lot of people over the course of the nine years that we're about to celebrate 50:40.000 --> 50:43.000 or the course of 10 years are no longer here with us. 50:43.000 --> 50:48.000 They're still alive. Right. I'm not saying they're no longer here with us, but there's just not in church. 50:48.000 --> 50:51.000 And, you know, that could happen to anybody. Right. If you have your guard down. 50:51.000 --> 50:56.000 So number two is that when Christians have their guard down, what's another thing that happens? 50:56.000 --> 50:59.000 They stop reading the Bible. You know, they stop reading the Word of God. 50:59.000 --> 51:04.000 And here we see that the Bible, the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword. 51:04.000 --> 51:09.000 See, God gave us that weapon, the sword of the spirit to be able to fight the good fight of faith. Right. 51:09.000 --> 51:15.000 This is something that we have to constantly read in the morning, in the night, whenever it is that you have some time, 51:15.000 --> 51:18.000 always set a part of some time to read the Word of God. 51:18.000 --> 51:22.000 But when you have your guard down, what happens? You stop going to church, you stop reading your Bible. 51:22.000 --> 51:25.000 And when you stop reading your Bible, you start thinking differently. Right. 51:25.000 --> 51:28.000 You start thinking more carnally. You start thinking more worldly. 51:28.000 --> 51:33.000 You start accepting, you know, different things that are sinful. Why? Because you're no longer thinking biblically. 51:33.000 --> 51:36.000 You're no longer renewing your mind. 51:36.000 --> 51:40.000 So this morning, I just want to remind you, keep your guard up when it comes to being a Christian. 51:40.000 --> 51:44.000 Come to church. Don't stop coming to church. Let's say you're tired. Just drink some coffee. 51:44.000 --> 51:49.000 Drink a C4. Drink some Red Bulls. You know, there's so many things that we have nowadays, 51:49.000 --> 51:54.000 so many commodities that can help us, right, to do, to help us do what we need to do. 51:54.000 --> 52:00.000 Now go to 2nd Timothy, chapter three, 2nd Timothy, chapter three. 52:00.000 --> 52:05.000 The Bible says in verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, 52:05.000 --> 52:12.000 for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness that the man of God may be perfect through the furnished and to all good works. 52:12.000 --> 52:18.000 And so the Bible has a purpose, right? The Bible is just not here to just have it at your house in a drawer somewhere. 52:18.000 --> 52:25.000 The Bible has a purpose. And the Bible says right there that it's given to us for reproof, for correction, instruction and righteousness. 52:25.000 --> 52:30.000 You know, the Bible is there to teach us how to do right. And as a Christian, we have to learn to do what's right. 52:30.000 --> 52:32.000 You know, it's not something that just comes naturally. 52:32.000 --> 52:38.000 Obviously, if we walk in the spirit, we're more likely to not fulfill the lust of the flesh, but we have to learn to do what's right. 52:38.000 --> 52:41.000 You know, there are a lot of commandments in the Bible that we're not aware of. 52:41.000 --> 52:47.000 And, you know, once we read the Bible, once we learn, then we're aware of what God expects from us. 52:47.000 --> 52:52.000 Now go to 2nd Timothy, chapter two, 2nd Timothy, chapter two. 52:52.000 --> 52:57.000 And I'm almost done, but here's the point that I'm trying to make that as a Christian, don't let your guard down. 52:57.000 --> 53:00.000 If you let your guard down, what happens? Church goes out the window. 53:00.000 --> 53:04.000 You know, your Bible reading goes out the window and then prayer also goes out the window. 53:04.000 --> 53:07.000 And when people stop praying, you know, they're no longer trusting in God. 53:07.000 --> 53:12.000 You're no longer trusting in God to provide for them, to protect them. 53:12.000 --> 53:16.000 Who are they trusting in themselves, in their job, you know, in other people? 53:16.000 --> 53:22.000 You know, what's the job going to do for us when, you know, you get fired or something or you get let go or whatever the case may be? 53:22.000 --> 53:24.000 You know, are they always going to be there? No. 53:24.000 --> 53:28.000 That's why we need to trust in God to provide for our needs. 53:28.000 --> 53:34.000 Look at 2nd Timothy, chapter two, the Bible says in verse 15, study to show thyself approved unto God, 53:34.000 --> 53:39.000 a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 53:39.000 --> 53:45.000 And so we need to study the Bible, you know, we need to go to actually go to Proverbs, chapter three, 53:45.000 --> 53:51.000 Proverbs chapter, I believe it's three, go to Proverbs chapter three, whether myself. 53:58.000 --> 54:10.000 Yeah, I looked down at verse number five, the Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lead not into thy own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. 54:10.000 --> 54:15.000 And so God, you know, if we're praying unto God, he's going to direct you in what you should do in life. 54:15.000 --> 54:19.000 You know, maybe you're going through something right now where you don't know what direction to take. 54:19.000 --> 54:23.000 Just pray to God, you know, pray for wisdom. Don't be double minded about it. 54:23.000 --> 54:28.000 You know, just pray to God, pray for wisdom, read the scriptures and God will direct you. 54:28.000 --> 54:34.000 You know, God would give you that peace of mind, but don't make any decisions when, you know, you're emotional, you're just stressed out, you're angry. 54:34.000 --> 54:38.000 You know, these are things that you shouldn't do when you're in that situation. 54:38.000 --> 54:43.000 Just make a hasty decision. And because oftentimes it's just going to go wrong. 54:43.000 --> 54:56.000 I go to Psalms, Chapter 37, verse 23. Psalms 37, verse 23. 54:56.000 --> 55:02.000 It says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighted in his way. 55:02.000 --> 55:10.000 And so let God, you know, order your steps, let God direct your path and go to Matthew, Chapter six, go to Matthew, Chapter six. 55:10.000 --> 55:19.000 Here's the last point. So first we say that when people let their guard down, especially pastors, you know, they're going to be destroyed. 55:19.000 --> 55:25.000 Number two is that when a Christian or the members of the church, they let their guard down, they're also going to be destroyed. 55:25.000 --> 55:30.000 Why? Because they stop coming to church, they stop reading their Bible and they stop praying. 55:30.000 --> 55:36.000 But lastly, you know, we need to have our guard up, not let our guard down as a church, right, as a local church collectively. 55:36.000 --> 55:42.000 And all these points are just tied together. I talked about pastor, I talked about the leadership, I talked about us, but let's just talk about the church. 55:42.000 --> 55:47.000 You know, we need to have our guard up as a church, as a local assembly, as a local church. 55:47.000 --> 55:51.000 And we need to be of one mind. You know, we need to be united over doctrine. 55:51.000 --> 55:55.000 We need to have the same goal, which is what? To reach the world with the gospel. 55:55.000 --> 56:05.000 And when a church takes their eyes off the Great Commission and they start deciding to do other things, they start downplaying soul winning, they start downplaying, you know, missions, what's going to happen? 56:05.000 --> 56:09.000 You're no longer going to be a church. You know, they're no longer going to be great. 56:09.000 --> 56:17.000 And so the purpose of church is to train more laborers, to put people out there in the field so that they can win people to Christ. 56:17.000 --> 56:23.000 And just recently we had the soul winning training. You know, that's something that we have every year because every year we have new people come. 56:23.000 --> 56:34.000 Every year, you know, it's just a reset button. It's just a way to refresh our minds on how to preach the gospel, how to learn to do, you know, different illustrations, whatever the case may be. 56:34.000 --> 56:40.000 There's always something to learn as a soul winner. There's never a dull moment in soul winning, especially if you go with the right person. 56:40.000 --> 56:48.000 But there's never a dull moment. And as a Christian, that's the one thing, you know, that I want to encourage you to always stick to, soul winning. 56:48.000 --> 56:57.000 If you're not a soul winner in our church, there's really no excuse. There's a lot of material here. There's tracts. There's New Testaments. There's team leaders. 56:57.000 --> 57:03.000 There's everything, every tool that you need to be successful, to be a great soul winner. And that's something that everybody can do. 57:03.000 --> 57:09.000 That's something that the men can do. That's something that the women can do. That's something that the children can do. 57:09.000 --> 57:15.000 You know, I see Miss Abby, Abigail, Miss DJ's daughter, she's preaching the gospel now. And oh, she's right here. 57:15.000 --> 57:21.000 But she's preaching the gospel. That's something that every single person can do. And as a church, you know, we shouldn't let our guard down. 57:21.000 --> 57:28.000 Keep the main thing, the main thing, which is soul winning. And if we're going to do anything great for God, you know, it's us reaching people. 57:28.000 --> 57:36.000 It's us bringing people to church. It's us investing our time into people that already come here, you know, training them up, discipling them. 57:36.000 --> 57:41.000 You know, we shouldn't be so selfish and just be like, oh, you know, after service, I'm just going to go home. Right. 57:41.000 --> 57:46.000 Just stick around, fellowship, learn, you know, to get to know the people that come to our church. 57:46.000 --> 57:51.000 And I like the fact, you know, some people are out today because they're sick. Some people are out for other reasons, whatever. 57:51.000 --> 57:55.000 But there's a lot of new people that you can still meet today. Right. 57:55.000 --> 58:00.000 There's people that I ran into last week that I'm like, hey, is this your first time? He's like, no, I've been coming here for like four weeks. 58:00.000 --> 58:05.000 I just feel bad. Right. But I think it's a good time because there's new people in our church. 58:05.000 --> 58:10.000 There's people that you can get to know. You know, it's just make friends here. 58:10.000 --> 58:15.000 I go to Matthew, chapter 19, chapter 28, Matthew, chapter 28. 58:15.000 --> 58:24.000 Here's the last verse. The Bible says in verse 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost. 58:24.000 --> 58:30.000 And teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world. 58:30.000 --> 58:38.000 And so here I just want to reemphasize or emphasize that the purpose of church is to fulfill the Great Commission. 58:38.000 --> 58:41.000 And I'm thankful that we have a church that, you know, that's the main goal. 58:41.000 --> 58:46.000 Like I said, we have that goal of four thousand salvations by the end of the year. I believe we're going to surpass that. 58:46.000 --> 58:50.000 We have the goal of 80, 80 baptisms by the end of the year. 58:50.000 --> 58:53.000 We're like at 22 virtually every week we have a baptism. 58:53.000 --> 59:00.000 And, you know, these are goals that we have put. Why? So we could brag about it? No, just so we could know that we could do something great for God. 59:00.000 --> 59:03.000 Always challenging ourselves to do more. 59:03.000 --> 59:07.000 And so what's the sermon this morning? You know, don't let your guard down. 59:07.000 --> 59:12.000 You know, as a Christian, as the leadership here, the team leaders only your guard down. 59:12.000 --> 59:17.000 The people in the teams only your guard down. And just as a local church, you know, we didn't be vigilant. 59:17.000 --> 59:26.000 We need to be cautious. We need to make sure that we're aware of the dangers that are out there, primarily with Satan, the devil who's trying to destroy us, the world. 59:26.000 --> 59:30.000 And then we're just with ourselves. You know, be realistic. Do some introspection. 59:30.000 --> 59:36.000 You know, do like just evaluate yourselves. You know, what am I doing today? Have I won somebody to the Lord this week? 59:36.000 --> 59:40.000 Am I reading my Bible? Am I praying to God? Am I investing in people? 59:40.000 --> 59:45.000 You know, a lot of people think that the Christian life, there's not a lot to do sometimes or they feel like there's not a lot to do. 59:46.000 --> 59:51.000 But there's always something to do as a Christian. There's always somebody new to reach. There's always somebody new to the disciple. 59:51.000 --> 59:54.000 There's always somebody new to train. So I just want to encourage you this morning. 59:54.000 --> 59:57.000 You know, don't let your guard down. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this day. 59:57.000 --> 01:00:01.000 Thank you for allowing us, Lord, to gather here today this morning to hear from your word. 01:00:01.000 --> 01:00:10.000 I pray, Lord, that you would be with everybody in this congregation and with pastor and that you would continue to lead us and instruct us, Lord, in your word, that we may do great things for you. 01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:20.000 I pray, Lord, that we are able to take the gospel to the ends of the world, starting with our city and the cities that surround us and to the uttermost part. 01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:23.000 I pray, Lord, for pastor that you would bring him back safely. 01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:29.000 Bless the fellowship that's going to follow after and the baby shower as well in the remainder of our day. In Jesus' name, amen. 01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:39.000 Please turn your songbooks to song number 377.